This invention pertains to a liquid pressure pattern-transferring ink including an alkyd resin as a fundamental ingredient used for transferring and printing appropriate print patterns such as wood grain patterns, marble patterns or other patterns by using a liquid pressure on an objective article (a body to which the print pattern is to be transferred) having a three-dimensional surface such as a curved surface or the like. More particularly, this invention pertains to an improvement on a liquid pressure pattern-transferring ink which is suitably useful for printing print patterns to be transferred on an objective article such as car bodies which tend to be exposed to severe atmospheres such as sunlight, weather and so on. Furthermore, this invention pertains to an improvement on a liquid pressure pattern-transferring ink to be used for printing a print pattern on a surface of an objective article exposed to such severe atmospheres and including an alkyd resin as a fundamental component.
Furthermore, this invention pertains to a pattern-transferring film having a print pattern printed thereon by the liquid pressure pattern-transferring ink, a liquid pressure pattern-transferred article having a predetermined print pattern transferred from the pattern-transferring film by using a liquid pressure and a method of transferring a print pattern on an objective article by using the pattern-transferring film.
A method of transferring onto an objective body or article (a body to which a print pattern is to be transferred ) by using a liquid pressure a print pattern on a pattern-transferring film floated on a liquid surface has been used for printing the print pattern on the objective body having a three-dimensional surface such as a curved surface and so on. The liquid to be used may be typically water and may be a liquid other than the water if it has no trouble for the liquid pressure pattern-transferring operation.
This liquid pressure pattern-transferring method is one in which a liquid-soluble or liquid-swelling pattern-transferring film having a predetermined print pattern of no liquid solution provided thereon is floated on a surface of a liquid flowing within a transferring bath and is made swelled by the liquid and then the objective, body is immersed into the liquid within the transferring bath in a manner faced to the pattern-transferring film and has the print pattern transferred from the pattern-transferring film by using a liquid pressure.
In case that a print pattern should be printed on an objective body to be used in a place such as a building room or a car room where it is never exposed to an outdoor atmosphere, a printing ink is not required to have a weather resistance, but in case that the print pattern should be printed on an objective body such as a car hood or a car panel including a fender or the like exposed to an outdoor atmosphere, the printing ink is required to have a weather resistance so that the color of the transferred pattern neither changes nor fades while it is exposed to the outdoor atmosphere.
In general, the printing ink for printing the print pattern on the pattern-transferring film to be used for the liquid pressure transferring method comprises a resin serving as binder, a plasticizer serving to adjust a hardness of the resin, a pigment serving to provide a color thereto and a solvent serving to solve the resin into a liquid. The print pattern to be used for being transferred under a liquid pressure may be formed by a gravure printing method by using a single or a plurality of inks among yellow, red, blue, white and black inks while they are of a primary color or of a blended color so that a variety of colors appear where dots of the primary or blended color are superposed one on another.
A printing ink of prior art has used a relatively inexpensive pigment having a sharpness of its color and more particularly has a phthalocyanine blue as blue pigment, an anatase type titanium white as white pigment, a carbon black as black pigment, a permanent red as red pigment and a disazo yellow as yellow pigment.
Such a prior art printing ink has no problem when it is used for printing the print pattern on the surface of the indoor objective body by the liquid pressure pattern transferring method, but it is confirmed that when the prior art printing ink is used for printing the print pattern on the surface of the outdoor objective body exposed to severe outdoor atmospheres such as sunlight, weather and so on, the color of the pattern transferred thereon tends to change or fade.
Imagining that the color of the transferred pattern changing or fading was caused by the properties of the pigment in itself of the printing ink, the applicant made a weather resistance test on various metal test pieces having printing inks of various colors daubed by using a sunshine weather meter based on JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) so as to confirm the weather resistance of the pigments included in the prior art printing inks. As a result, it was confirmed that the colors of the phthalocyanine blue as blue pigment, the anatase type titanium white as white pigment and the carbon black as black pigment neither changed nor faded even in more than 3000 hours, but the color of the permanent red as red pigment and the disazo yellow as yellow pigment changed or faded in about 1000 and 500 hours, respectively. It will be noted that the color of the pattern transferred from the print pattern on the pattern transferring film formed by using the prior art printing ink changed or faded because the pigments had a poor weather resistance.
The outdoor objective article such as a car panel including a car bonnet, a fender and so on is required to have a weather resistance corresponding to a life span of the car. A weather resistance of about 3000 hours determined by a weather resistance test using the sunshine weather meter will be normally enough for the car panel, but with the prior art printing ink used, the entire color of the transferred pattern is unbalanced due to the lower weather resistance of the red and yellow printing inks and as a result, the color of the transferred pattern on the outdoor objective article tends to change or fade.
On the other hand, the print pattern has a design provided as a collective form of dots on the pattern-transferring film by a gravure printing method as aforementioned. If the print pattern thus provided on the pattern-transferring film is in a dry state, then it is required to restore an adhesion property necessary for the pattern-transferring operation by returning from the dry state to an activated state by using an activator composite before it is transferred on the objective body.
In this case, the print pattern is required to have such an extensibility as allows the print pattern to be closely adhered to the objective body along the surface thereof. If a part of the ink of the print pattern is too much dissolved, the design pattern transferred and formed on the objective body tends to be destroyed. Reversely if a part of the printing ink is insufficiently dissolved, the print pattern will be transferred while a lump of ink remains. If the whole ink is excessively dissolved, then an arrangement of ink dots will be broken so that the transferred design pattern will be made blurred. Thus, such phenomena have to be prevented. In the description, the two former phenomena will be referred to as xe2x80x9ca disarrangement of the transferred patternxe2x80x9d while the last phenomenon will be referred to as xe2x80x9ca blur of the transferred patternxe2x80x9d.
In a liquid pressure pattern-transferring ink of the prior art including an alkyd resin as a fundamental component, the resin ingredient is composed of a short-oil alkyd resin of 2 to 15 weight % having a nitrocellulose of 3 to 20 weight % added thereto, the plasticizer is composed of a dibutyl phthalate of 2 to 7 weight % or the like and the liquid pressure pattern-transferring ink comprises a color pigment of 5 to 40 weight % and a solvent of the residue weight % in addition to the aforementioned ingredients.
The nitrocellulose serves to adjust a hardness of the resin ingredient in itself so as to increase its hardness, but since the hardness of the resin in itself is relatively high, the print pattern disadvantageously fails to be transferred while it is smoothly extended due to a shortage of the extensibility of the ink. With the print pattern being fully not extended, it cannot be closely adhered to the objective body along the surface thereof, which causes the portion of the print pattern not adhered thereto to be produced so that a pinhole or pinholes are formed therein.
As aforementioned, the dry ink which forms the print pattern provided on the pattern-transferring film retrieves its adhesion property by being dissolved by an activator.
However, even though the dry print pattern is swelled by the activator, a plain transferred pattern cannot be sometimes obtained because there occurs the disarrangement of the print pattern due to the partial dissolution of the printing ink or the shortage of dissolution of the printing ink and also because there occurs the phenomenon of the transferred pattern being blurred, which is caused by the original state of the ink dots broken by the excessive dissolution of the printing ink. Especially, the excessive dissolution of the printing ink occurs when too much amount of the activator composite is coated and is caused to lose a sharpness (clearness) of the pattern transferred to the objective body. Thus, it will be noted that the amount of the activator composite to be coated should not be excessive in view of the sharpness of the transferred pattern.
The activator essentially serves to swell the dry printing ink and restore the adhesive property thereof. Thus, it is difficult to effectively prevent the disarrangement of the transferred pattern due to the partial dissolution of the ink or the shortage of dissolution of the ink and the blurring of the transferred pattern due to the excessive dissolution of the ink even by using an appropriate amount of the activator. This has to be solved by improving the property of the ink.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to effectively transfer a print pattern under a liquid pressure pattern onto an outdoor objective body while a transferred pattern printed on the objective body has a weather resistance of at least about 3000 hours on measurement of a sunshine weather meter (referred to as a weather resistance of about 3000 hours hereinbelow).
It is another object of the invention to effectively transfer a print pattern under a liquid pressure pattern onto an outdoor objective body while a transferred pattern printed on the objective body has a weather resistance of at least about 3000 hours and also to effectively prevent a disarrangement or blurring of the transferred pattern by improving a hardness and a stickiness of the ink having a resin ingredient including an alkyd resin as a fundamental component while maintaining an extensibility of the ink.
It is further object of the invention to effectively transfer a print pattern under a liquid pressure pattern onto an outdoor objective body while a transferred pattern printed on the objective body has a weather resistance of at least about 3000 hours and also to easily obtain a print pattern which has a larger charging amount of a printing ink when a pattern such as a wood grain pattern is to be printed and therefore is required to have a good extensibility of the printing ink.
It is further object of the invention to effectively transfer a print pattern under a liquid pressure pattern onto an outdoor objective body while a transferred pattern printed on the objective body has a weather resistance of at least about 3000 hours and also to easily obtain a print pattern having an extensibility of a printing ink adapted to a relatively smaller charging amount of the printing ink when a pattern such as a marble pattern is to be printed.
The present invention is to provide a liquid pressure pattern-transferring ink adapted to accomplish the aforementioned objects, a liquid pressure pattern-transferring film having a print pattern printed by the liquid pressure pattern-transferring ink, a liquid pressure pattern-transferred article having a transferred pattern obtained by using the liquid pressure pattern-transferring film and a method of producing the liquid pressure pattern transferred article.
A first feature of the invention is to provide a set of liquid pressure pattern-transferring inks including at least a blue ink, a yellow ink and a red ink and each comprising a resin ingredient and a color pigment characterized by that said color pigment for said blue ink is a phthalocyanine blue, said color pigment for said yellow ink is an isoindolinone yellow and said color pigment for said red ink is a quinacridone red.
A second feature of the invention is to provide a liquid pressure pattern-transferring film having a liquid soluble or liquid swelling base film and a print pattern printed on said base film, said print pattern being printed by using a selected ink or inks among printing inks including a blue ink, a yellow ink, a red ink, a white ink and a black ink so that either of the yellow ink and the red ink or a combination of at least the yellow and red inks is selected, said printing inks each comprising a resin ingredient and a color pigment, said color pigment for said blue ink being a phthalocyanine blue, said color pigment for said yellow ink being an isoindolinone yellow, said color pigment for said red ink being a quinacridone red, said color pigment for said white ink being a titanium white and said color pigment for said black ink being a carbon black.
A third feature of the invention is to provide a liquid pressure pattern-transferred article formed by transferring a print pattern from a pattern-transferring film to an objective body by using a liquid pressure, said print pattern being printed by using a selected ink or inks among printing inks including a blue ink, a yellow ink, a red ink, a white ink and a black ink so that either of the yellow ink and the red ink or a combination of at least the yellow and red inks is selected, said printing inks each comprising a resin ingredient and a color pigment, said color pigment for said blue ink being a phthalocyanine blue, said color pigment for said yellow ink being an isoindolinone yellow, said color pigment for said red ink being a quinacridone red, said color pigment for said white ink being a titanium white and said color pigment for said black ink being a carbon black.
A fourth feature of the invention is to provide a method of transferring a print pattern from a pattern-transferring film to an objective body by using a liquid pressure, said print pattern being printed by using a selected ink or inks among printing inks including a blue ink, a yellow ink, a red ink, a white ink and a black ink so that either of the yellow ink and the red ink or a combination of at least the yellow and red inks is selected, said printing inks each comprising a resin ingredient and a color pigment, said color pigment for said blue ink being a phthalocyanine blue, said color pigment for said yellow ink being an isoindolinone yellow, said color pigment for said red ink being a quinacridone red, said color pigment for said white ink being a titanium white and said color pigment for said black ink being a carbon black and said print pattern which is made dry on said pattern-transferring film being transferred under said liquid pressure after said print pattern is so treated as to be activated by an activator.
A fifth feature of the invention is to provide a method of transferring a print pattern from a pattern-transferring film to an objective body by using a liquid pressure, said print pattern being printed by using a selected ink or inks among printing inks including a blue ink, a yellow ink, a red ink, a white ink and a black ink so that either of the yellow ink and the red ink or a combination of at least the yellow and red inks is selected, said printing inks each comprising a resin ingredient and a color pigment, said color pigment for said blue ink being a phthalocyanine blue, said color pigment for said yellow ink being an isoindolinone yellow, said color pigment for said red ink being a quinacridone red, said color pigment for white ink being a titanium white and said color pigment for said black ink being a carbon black and said print pattern being transferred under said liquid pressure before said print pattern is made dry on said pattern-transferring film.
The blue, yellow and red inks are ones to be necessarily used for forming a design as a collective form of dots on the pattern-transferring film by a gravure printing method. These inks are used while maintaining a primary color like they are used for a process color printing method or while providing a blended color obtained by blending primary color inks as they are used for a special color printing method. Of course, the primary color ink or inks and the blended color ink or inks may be combined. Although the phthalocyanine blue as the color pigment for the blue ink which has been used also in the prior art has the weather resistance of more than 3000 hours, the whole transferred pattern cannot have the expected weather resistance of more than 3000 hours due to its unbalance unless the other yellow and red inks have an enough weather resistance.
The isoindolinone yellow as the yellow pigment and the quinacridone red as the red pigment in the ink sets of the invention have a weather resistance of more than 3000 hours which is considerably higher than those of the permanent red as red pigment and the disazo yellow as yellow pigment in the ink sets of the prior art, and therefore it will be noted that as they are used together with the phthalocyanine blue as the blue pigment, the whole transferred pattern thus obtained can have an improved weather resistance of more than 3000 hours while the balance of the weather resistance property is maintained.
In the principal feature of the invention, the liquid pressure pattern-transferring ink sets may further include one or both of a white ink and a black ink. In this case, the color pigment for the white ink is an anatase type titanium white while the color pigment for the black ink is a carbon black.
In some gravure printing method, black ink dots may be added so as to express the natural black color which cannot be expressed even by blending three primary colors while white ink dots may be added so as to express the natural white color which cannot be similarly expressed even by blending three primary colors. It will be understood that although the anatase type titanium white as the color pigment for the white ink and the carbon black as the color pigment for the black ink are conventionally used, they originally have the weather resistance of more than 3000 hours and therefore these color pigments may be used for this invention as they are.
The liquid pressure pattern-transferring inks of various colors may comprises a resin ingredient including an alkyd resin as a fundamental component, a plasticizer and a pigment and in this case, the resin ingredient may be preferably composed of a short-oil alkyd resin of 2 to 15 weight % having a cellulose acetate butyrate of 3 to 20 weight % added thereto, the plasticizer may preferably have a content of 2 to 4 weight % when the ink is of black while it may preferably have a content of 0.01 to 2 weight % when the ink is of color other than black.
This additional feature lies in a cellulose acetate butyrate (cellulose acetobutyrate) substituted for a nitrocellulose in a resin ingredient of the prior art liquid pressure pattern-transferring ink and in a lower ratio of ingredient of the plasticizer in accordance with the substitution of the resin ingredient.
The cellulose acetate butyrate is harder than the short-oil alkyd resin, but softer than the nitrocellulose. Thus, as the cellulose acetate butyrate is substituted for the nitrocellulose in the resin ingredient of the pattern-transferring ink, the resin ingredient of the ink in itself is made softer, which improves an extensibility of the print pattern on an objective body to which the print pattern is to be transferred. This results in the prevention of the disarrangement of the transferred pattern due to the shortage of dissolution of the ink or the partial dissolution of the ink.
However, if the amount of the cellulose acetate butyrate to be added is the same as that of the nitrocellulose used in the prior art ink, then there cannot be prevented the blurring of the transferred pattern due to the excessive dissolution of the ink when treated by an activator, which is caused by the ink composite being too softer.
With the content of the plasticizer in the printing ink being of 2 to 4 weight % in case of the black ink and being of 0.01 to 2 weight % in case of the ink of color other than black and with the amount of the plasticizer to be added being less than that of the printing ink including an alkyd resin as a fundamental component, the softness of the ink can be adjusted so that the hardness of the ink can be properly controlled not only when the ink is swelled, but also when it is dry. This serves to prevent the excessive dissolution of the ink so as to improve a sharpness of the transferred pattern.
Although the inks of various colors may comprise the resin ingredient including an alkyd resin as the fundamental component, the plasticizer and the pigment having the composition mentioned with respect to the principal feature, the resin ingredient may be composed of a short-oil alkyd resin having a nitrocellulose of low molecular weight added thereto.
Although the inks of various colors may comprise the resin ingredient including an alkyd resin as the fundamental component and the pigment, the resin ingredient may be composed of a short-oil alkyd resin having a nitrocellulose of high molecular weight and a nitrocellulose of low molecular weight added thereto.
These second and third features of the invention lie in a combination of the phthalocyanine blue as the color pigment for the blue ink, the isoindolinone yellow as the color pigment for the yellow ink, the quinacridone red as the color pigment for the red ink, the titanium white as the color pigment for the white ink and the carbon black as the color pigment for the black ink as well as the nitrocellulose as the resin ingredient. The nitrocellulose of the resin ingredient serves to improve a dispersibility of the pigments and also to improve a coloring property thereof. If there is used a nitro acetate butyrate as the resin ingredient which is the first additional feature, then the dispersibility of the pigments will be somewhat lowered and therefore the coloring property thereof will be lowered.
Thus, it will be noted that whether the cellulose acetate butyrate as the resin ingredient which is the first additional feature or the nitrocellulose of low molecular weight which is the second or third features may be used is based on which of the coloring property and the extensibility of the ink should be prior to the other.
The second and third additional features commonly have the nitrocellulose as the resin ingredient to be combined with the color pigment while having the expected improvement of the coloring property, but the second additional feature has the nitrocellulose of low molecular weight used as the resin ingredient while the third additional feature has the combination of the nitrocellulose of high molecular weight and the nitrocellulose of low molecular weight used as the resin ingredient. Thus, the ink of the according to the second additional feature has the extensibility higher than the ink according to the third additional feature has. As a result, the former ink will be suitable for printing the print pattern having the higher amount of the ink to be charged such as printing the wood grain pattern and so on while the latter ink will be suitable for printing the print pattern having the lower amount of the ink to be charged such as printing the marble pattern and so on.